--- title: How the Tech Industry Can Help Strengthen Democracy description: The software industry should view democratic governments as their most important customers in the upcoming decade, writes Michael Seibel. canonical: https://time.com/6102974/technology-democracy/ author: Michael Seibel article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2021-10-01T10:30:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:52:30.069Z article:section: Ideas og:title: How the Tech Industry Can Help Strengthen Democracy og:description: The software industry should view democratic governments as their most important customers, writes Michael Seibel og:url: https://time.com/6102974/technology-democracy/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c012bbbe2991416/698a1d66d07533a3a0e6c012/ideas-for-fairer-world-michael-seibel.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: ideas-for-fairer-world-michael-seibel og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How the Tech Industry Can Help Strengthen Democracy twitter:description: The software industry should view democratic governments as their most important customers, writes Michael Seibel twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c012bbbe2991416/698a1d66d07533a3a0e6c012/ideas-for-fairer-world-michael-seibel.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How the Tech Industry Can Help to Strengthen Democracy Over the Next Decade > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=47701336-f743-491f-9c73-52ef0ace915f&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1)  by [Michael Seibel](https://time.com/author/michael-seibel/)  ## Michael Seibel Oct 1, 2021 10:30 AM UTC  Michael Seibel, managing director, Y Combinator Michael Seibel, managing director, Y Combinator Gary Sexton  by [Michael Seibel](https://time.com/author/michael-seibel/)  ## Michael Seibel Oct 1, 2021 10:30 AM UTC Over the next decade, democratic governments will be tested by the [rise of China](https://time.com/6085097/asia-west-stakeholder-capitalism/). They will have to prove to their citizens and those of developing nations that democracy can deliver widespread economic growth, stability and security in the modern world. Once again there will be a global competition between two very different forms of government, and right now the [outcome](https://time.com/5936037/us-china-latin-america-influence/) is uncertain. For democracies to win this contest, they will need to leverage software to deliver more prosperity to a wider cross section of their populations, while still preserving individual rights. They have powerful potential allies in the private tech sector who could be of service building and selling industry-leading software to democratic governments. They should be intrinsically motivated because helping preserve democracy also safeguards the marketplace rules these companies depend upon to generate financial returns. In the following 10 years, the chief executive officers of every large software company in a democratic country must embrace a new key performance indicator: the success of the software of democracy. The software industry should view democratic governments as their most important customers in the upcoming decade and create the tools they need to thrive. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6102974/technology-democracy/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6102974/technology-democracy/"},"headline":"How the Tech Industry Can Help to Strengthen Democracy Over the Next Decade","datePublished":"2021-10-01T10:30:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:52:30.069Z","description":"\"The software industry should view democratic governments as their most important customers\"","url":"https://time.com/6102974/technology-democracy/","keywords":["TIME 2030","Tech","Magazine","biztech2030"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c012bbbe2991416/698a1d66d07533a3a0e6c012/ideas-for-fairer-world-michael-seibel.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Michael Seibel","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/michael-seibel/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c012bbbe2991416/698a1d66d07533a3a0e6c012/ideas-for-fairer-world-michael-seibel.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"ideas-for-fairer-world-michael-seibel","caption":"Michael Seibel, managing director, Y Combinator","creditText":"Gary Sexton","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-2030/","name":"TIME 2030"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6102974/technology-democracy/","name":"How the Tech Industry Can Help to Strengthen Democracy Over the Next Decade"}}]}] ```